Tesla has surprised consumers again, as revealed by Edmunds’ recent Model 3 test. The car, in Performance configuration, beat the EPA estimated range in real-world testing by the publication.
Edmunds, which is notorious for its not-always-fair criticism of Tesla, bought a new Model 3 Performance for regular use. The publication’s writers noted that they had driven the car for 2,000 miles so far and were impressed by the 3.0-second 0-60 mph time they recorded in their instrumented test. Edmunds was not impressed with the braking and handling but decided to focus on a more pressing issue for many buyers: range. They put their Tesla through the Edmunds EV Range Test to see how it fared.
The publication noted that it tests each vehicle on the same real-world route to see how far it can travel from a full charge to zero miles remaining. All distances are checked using GPS, and the vehicles are then fully charged using a Level 2 station right after so Edmunds can measure how much energy was consumed on the route. According to Tesla’s website, Model 3 Performance has an EPA-estimated range of 303 miles on a full charge.
When the publication unplugged the Model 3 Performance in the morning, the vehicle’s display showed 100% charge with an estimated range of 296 miles.
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As noted, conditions for this test were good. There were no adverse weather conditions during the test, and the average ambient temperature was 71.4 degrees Fahrenheit (about 22 degrees Celsius). Edmunds reported that, after a full day of driving the Model 3 Performance, they were able to travel 307 miles on a single charge using an electron-sipping 29 kWh/100 miles. That is four miles or just over 1% better than the EPA estimate. While that may not seem like much, it is still an important number for EV drivers.
This Model 3 Performance was the second of nine other Teslas that took the same test to exceed its EPA range estimate. The big winner is Cybertruck, which was able to travel 334 miles on a single charge versus the EPA estimate of just 318 miles.
